Cook Arrested In Theft

July 7, 1986|By STEVEN GIRARDI, Staff Writer

LAUDERHILL -- A startled cook at a McDonald`s restaurant suffered second- degree burns Sunday when a bundle of cash he tried to smuggle out of the restaurant exploded in his trouser, a Broward Sheriff`s Office spokesman said.

The $400 in cash, stolen from the restaurant safe, was rigged with an orange exploding dye that activated just after the man walked out the front door at 6:35 p.m., sheriff`s spokesman George Crolius said.

Dwaine Clarke, 18, was arrested a short time later at his home in the 3600 block of Northwest Ninth Court, in Fort Lauderdale, Crolius said. He was taken to Plantation General Hospital for burn treatment and faces grand theft charges.

Clarke stuffed the bills into the front of his pants before leaving his job at McDonald`s, in the 1100 block of State Road 7, Crolius said. As he left, he walked past two sheriff`s deputies who coincidentally were heading into the restaurant for their dinner break, Crolius said.